Jean Hendrickson will share her experiences with innovations in education as one of the specially selected participants at the Education Leaders Institute Alumni Summit hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts and Illinois Arts Council in Chicago, Ill., Wednesday through Friday.

Hendrickson is the executive director of the University of Central Oklahoma-based Oklahoma A+ Schools, which include Madill Early Childhood Center.

Summit participants will share lessons learned and investigate current challenges in education. They will explore ways to use their networks for collective impact, and how that collective impact might implicate K-12 education policy.

Following the summit, the NEA will distribute a briefing report outlining the results of the teams' discussions. The report will be a resource for guiding the national conversation about improving K-12 learning by advancing the arts as a core element of education.

“Working with the Oklahoma A+ Schools on campus, my job is to be a liaison between the preparation of teachers and their practice in the field.

Attending this summit will be an opportunity that will allow us to bring cutting-edge strategies straight into the experiences for pre-service teachers,” said Hendrickson.

The summit will include eight, two-member state teams selected from among the 29 states that participated in previous NEA institutes. Hendrickson will co-represent Oklahoma at the summit with Susan McCalmont, president of